vegan scalloped potatoes: nut & gluten free

Yes, you can enjoy delicious vegan scalloped potatoes without added nuts. gluten or oil. We’re going to make them even more delectable by adding my newly discovered easy tofu sheet pan bacon.

Easy tofu sheet pan bacon

A few weeks ago, I had a complete epiphany about making tofu bacon. My past practice has been to press the tofu and then marinate and bake it. I’m going to say up front, that I still love this method; however, the trick to getting that smoky, savory taste is getting as much tofu as possible to absorb the marinade.

Enter my food processor. After pressing the tofu, I wondered ‘what would happen if I just blended all the flavor directly into the tofu?’ Here’s what I learned – you most certainly won’t need to marinade it any longer.

My big takeaways

Here’s what I also learned – once blended, your tofu is forever changed. Even though you press it, blending leaves you with a tofu paste. Easy solution though, I simply spread it thinly on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and baked it until brown.

After a few tries, I can report that it’s important to spread the tofu as evenly as possible. Otherwise, it will get very brown on the edges without the middle cooking. It’s ok if you bake this and a bit of the middle is slightly lighter than the outside. You’ll be baking it in the casserole.

Bacon bits AND enough for a sandwich

I made the bacon bits by just crumbling it with my hands, but you can dice it. I found that ½ block (4 ounces) of tofu is about the right amount for this recipe, but if you do an entire block, just crumble what you need and cut the rest into strips. That was you can make a veggie TLC sandwich or quick wraps.

Vegan scalloped potatoes – a healthy approach

After posting my favorite creamed onions recipe last week, which admittedly we absolute loved and have no intention of giving up any time soon, I decided that I would work on curbing my reliance on cashews for making creamy sauces. Now, this doesn’t mean I’m ditching cashews forever. I still believe that a head of cauliflower with a few cashews results in the ultimate, creamy basic bechamel (white sauce). So why give it up at all?

Variety, that's why

I believe that over reliance on any one ingredient comes at loss. It’s first a loss the creativity and opportunity to explore something new and secondly, you can sacrifice nutrition. In the case of cashews, nothing wrong there, but I took on a challenge to make scalloped potatoes as healthy and low fat as possible. This was a challenge to me. Always keep pushing and expanding your repertoire, but never compromise on flavor.

Making vegan scalloped potatoes gluten free

So, I used a few tricks with this sauce. Nothing fancy. I used arrowroot as the thickener. If you haven’t used that before, it’s quite wonderful.

What is arrowroot?

Arrowroot isn’t flour, it’s a gluten free powder made from maranata arundiaceaa which is a tuber (root). Although we aren’t focused on gluten-free around here, I love arrowroot because it doesn’t get lumpy like flour will. If you start exploring this wonderful stuff for making gravies and sauces, I’ll give you my advice. Add it slowly. It will get thick and if you overdo it (as I have before), you can end up with something that resembles a science class polymer. I did this once making gravy and it was quick an interesting consistency. Very thick and well, bouncy. I’m providing the perfect amount for this recipe, so not to worry. It’s just a note in case you start using it more regularly.

Saving time

Not marinating the tofu cut down on the cooking time quite a bit for this dish; however, you’ll want 45 minutes to an hour for your vegan scalloped potatoes to cook in the oven. Because you’ve pre-baked the bacon bits, cover it for most of the cooking process so you don’t end up overly crispy bacon. Cooking time will also depend on how thin you cut your potato slices. I used my food process on the fine slice blade for this purpose so I would have greater consistency of the thickness. You can also use a mandolin if you want super-thin slices.

Uncompromised

I made this dish a few times to ensure that I’d perfected it and I can honestly report that we loved it every time. It is the ultimate in creamy, savory potatoes with just a hint of cheese from the added nutritional yeast. It comes together easily as you can prepare the potatoes and make the sauce while the tofu baked and cools. Then it’s just a slide in the oven to wait, while the smell fills up the house. I’d tell you that this is a prefect holiday recipe – it is. But I’d also tell you that it doesn’t need to wait for that. This is isn’t a 30-minute dish, but it certainly deserves consideration when you have a few extra minutes to get dinner on the table.

Can I prepare vegan scalloped potatoes in advance?

The answer to that some parts, yes. The tofu bacon is a no brainer. I’ve kept it several days ahead and stored it in the fridge. The only problem is holding yourself accountable for not dipping in and snacking on it to the point that you don’t have enough for the potatoes.

Your sauce can also be made ahead and stored in the fridge. Although I wouldn’t advise doing the potatoes a day in advance, you can peel and slice them and keep them in a bowl or pan filled with water and ice. That will keep them from browning for several hours. This leaves you to do a few other things if you are preparing a big meal.

Final thoughts

I know potatoes get a bad wrap in some dieting circles and scalloped potatoes, even more demonized. In truth, like so many foods, the healthiness of potatoes is all about how they are prepared. Learning a few easy tricks such as making perfect oven baked chips without oil, using nut milk to mash and considering what you put on the baked potato are super-simple ways to get back to enjoying potatoes rather than demonizing them. Let’s not make food the enemy here. Our list of foods we eat on a plant-based diet is far, far greater than what we don’t eat. You can revel in the taste of scalloped potatoes or fries and you can do without guilt. Now that’s freedom. Peace.

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